Skip to main content

Farming at crossroads? Majority of India's 'active' farmers are above 60 years

By Suddhansu R Das 

The recent data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows 10,677 people in the farm sector have committed suicide in 2020. Industrially advanced Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh occupy top three positions in the number of farmer suicides in the country in 2019 and 2020 consecutively.
The number of suicides among agriculture laborers in 2020 has increased by 18% over 2019. The hunger, malnutrition and farmer suicide in India can be reduced by taking simple steps.
First, the government should identify all water bodies in the country and revive them with the involvement of the local people only. No government expenditure should be made on reviving the water bodies so that people will develop voluntary spirit and community feeling to work for their own development.
It will test the leadership skill of the majority of the local leaders who can learn to give up their high profile attitude and actively involve themselves in community service. This will help the young generation to hone their leadership skills through community service.
If the government spends money to preserve the water bodies, it will attract middlemen and contractors who will seldom do any good to the water bodies and run away with fat margins. Besides, the vested interest will highlight the preservation and revival effort without visible impact; ultimately the general public will suffer.
Good political leaders should make the preservation and revival of water bodies a mass movement so that it would help millions of farmers grow two to three crops in a year. It will improve the living condition of farmers and boost agriculture productivity to end suicide, hunger and malnutrition in the country.
Second, the entire agriculture land across the country should be mapped, measured and geo tagged. Not a single acre of fertile land should be converted into non agriculture purposes except for defense and for very essential infrastructure projects. Strict law should be passed to protect and preserve the fertile agricultural land in the country.
Hundreds of square kilometers of agricultural land have been allotted for various projects like building educational institutions, industries and IT parks; the land allocated is far beyond the need of those institutions. Those entities have amassed land capital at the cost of agriculture and this attitude should be curbed with strong political will; the excess land should be taken back for crop production.
Government should pass strict laws to protect small and medium farmers from the land sharks who often grab prime agricultural land or lure the small farmers to sell the land. Today, 86.2 % small and marginal farmers in India own less than two hectares of land; political economists say the small land holdings are not suitable for agriculture. In modern times, small land holdings are much more profitable for farmers as farmers can maintain it well and grow a variety of crops with innovative techniques.
Subhash Palekar's team has innovated Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) method  benefiting a large number of farmers in Karnataka
Third, farmers should be guided properly by senior farmers who have proven track record in farming. Experienced farmer scholars should be given a leading role in evolving an agriculture development model in the country. There are many experienced farmers in the country whose voice is not heard due to the cacophony of the book pundits.
Subhash Palekar and his team have innovated the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) method which has benefited a large number of farmers in Karnataka and in many parts of southern states. Zero Budget farming has saved a large number of farmers from high input cost, indebtedness and it helped farmers grow crops without life threatening pesticides.
Magsaysay Award winning Anna Hazare has converted his village Ralegaon Sidhi into a prosperous village with farm innovations, water conservation and with sheer dedication. There are many experienced farmers who can inspire the young generation in farming activities.
Government should identify genuine farmers and take their inputs in developing the farm economy. Today the majority of active farmers in the country are above 60 years which shows farming is at the cross road. 
It is very essential to attract young agriculture graduates and the village youth into farming activities since the jobs in industry and services are shrinking at an alarming pace due to artificial intelligence and automation etc. The solution to the agriculture problem is very simple and it is made very complex for political reasons.

Comments

Farmers commit suicides not because of crop failure but because farming has become economically viable and farmers are being debt trapped in one way or other and lured by freebies based on vote bank politics. They are always kept at the receiving end thereby making them subservient to freebies. Further, the farmers are not being trained for marketing intelligence to decided on the choice of crops to be grown as per the demand and supply equations. Finally, the right of the farmers to fix the price for their products is being grabbed by brokers and commission agents which constitute a mafia across the country. Jai Kisan has remained more as a slogan than the reality. Excessive dependence on farm machinery fueled by petrol and diesel has resulted in virtual extinction of cattle once used for farming, thereby cattle dung availability in rural India has become historic, due to which organic farming has become a casualty and chemical fertilizer and pesticide industry continue to dominate the marketing and social media, serving luring farmers into a debt trap to end up in suicides unable to recover. It is a vicious circle which warrants a scientific solution coupled with political will in practice but not in publicity.

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Invincible, Modi 'taller' than BJP, RSS: An opportunity for Congress beyond 2024?

By NS Venkataraman*  With the announcement of poll schedule for the 2024 parliamentary election, there is palpable excitement and expectation amongst the countrymen  about the shape of things to happen in India after the  results of the election would be announced. There is also speculation abroad about the future course of developments in India.